Thursday, January 27, 2011

Love Affair

I love writing.

I love it when my main character kisses someone for the first time. The soft lips, the visceral feel of intimacy, the scent of closeness. Does this mean that I'm a hopeless mush? Too much flirting with the baristas?

I love it when my characters make choices. Not choices born of necessity, but choices from the heart. From beyond the gut. A choice so deep that the result, good or bad, is everything. Sometimes it's a choice between very bad and really, really bad with a side of badness. But she made it, and it was real and THINGS HAPPENED because of it.

I love it when I can make the setting come alive. How many words are too many? Too few? If the setting seems like another character in the novel, I love that. That's how many words, that and no more.

I love plotting, I really do. I'm not a pantser, but I keep the outline only in my head. If it can't live there clearly and with distinction, the story isn't speaking to me.

I love creating individual voices for minor characters that are familiar yet not cliched. And this is so very hard. Hard enough that when it happens, I feel like doing a dance.

I love editing. I love taking three pages and making it a single paragraph that actually has more meaning and backstory.

I love how writing makes the day fade. My word processor doesn't care if I got stuck in traffic. The story demands my very best and my very best is what I give it. The novel is like a mistress or a lover that is never really satisfied. More, more, more give me more says the story until it's finally finished. Then it sits over in a corner pouting because I've moved on to someone new. Better looking. Younger, certainly.

I love writing. It's addictive. It's heady and delicious. It's a fulfillment of a craving that only grows the more you feed it.

Hi there!

The Adventures in Fiction Writing Blog is a place where aspiring writers can come for inspiration, resources, an inside look from the trenches, and success stories. Because it is a focused team endeavor, we will do our best to offer both the published and the aspiring writer something useful, something fun, something worth writing home about.